Crohn’s is a condition that affects one in 800 people in the UK and causes chronic intestinal inflammation, leading to pain, bleeding and diarrhoea.

The team found that a bacterium called Mycobacterium paratuberculosis releases a molecule that prevents a type of white blood cell from killing E.coli bacteria found in the body. E.coli is known to be present within Crohn’s disease tissue in increased numbers.

I’ve just returned from Copenhagen, Denmark, where I attended the 8th International Colloquium on Paratuberculosis (at considerable personal expense: Copenhagen is EXPENSIVE!)

Current thinking among researchers in the field is that MAP itself is mostly not the culprit in the tissue damage. MAP’s role is to initiate an inflammatory response in the bowel, through some unknown process/antigen/inflammatory-pathway. This immune response results in inflammation of bowel tissue, whereby the cells of the intestine physically separate, to allow immune cells, primarily macrophages and CD4 + CD8 T-cells, to reach the site of infection. This leads to “leaky gut” syndrome , which permits the contents of the bowel (most accurately described as being similar to the contents of a sewer), to leak through the bowel wall, resulting in a *massive* inflammatory response against the many microbes present in the fecal stream.

Live Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) has been cultured from retail milk purchased from stores in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

This means that American consumers are being exposed to live bacteria that are known to cause Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Johne’s Disease) in a wide range of animals, including dairy and beef cattle, and is suspected of being a cause of human Crohn’s Disease.

In the first recorded case of its kind, an unfortunate man in Germany who has HIV infection has tested culture positive for Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infection of the intestine. He suffered consequent Crohns-like symptoms, including profuse diarrhoea, high temperature and severe weight loss.

The German researchers who diagnosed his condition warn that, given the high prevalence of MAP in European and US food animal herds, pasteurised milk could be a route for infection with MAP, and that immunocompromised patients are especially susceptible.

The UK government today adopted a comprehensive strategy to prevent human exposure to the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). MAP is believed by a growing number of scientists to be a cause of Crohn’s Disease, a lifelong, debiliating and incurable bowel disease suffered mainly by the young.

The Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF), which advises the UK Government Food Standards Agency, today approved a comprehensive program of measures aimed at eliminating MAP from retail milk, as purchased by consumers. Previous research commissioned by the ACMSF showed that live MAP could be cultured from approximately 2% of retail milk on sale in the United Kingdom.

The strategy adopted by the ACMSF shows that the UK Government is taking the issue of MAP and Crohn’s Disease extremely seriously. As the ACMSF says in its strategy document: “…. the Agency has put to one side the question of whether or not there is a link between MAP and Crohn’s Disease. The Agency believes that precautionary action to reduce human exposure to MAP should start now and should not be dependent on waiting for the link to be proven.”

As promised a few months back, I’ve managed to digitize the the BBC TV programs about Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), Crohn’s Disease and MAP contamination of milk and water. Apologies for the delay, there’s been quite a few technical hitches along the way. You can access them from

The highest incidence and prevalence of Crohn’s Disease in the world were reported from Canada last year.

In the province of Manitoba, in the period 1989 to 1994, every year 14.6 people per 100,000 developed Crohn’s Disease. This rate is significantly higher than the previous record of 11 people per 100,000 per year from North Eastern Scotland, itself a very high figure.